THE KARABAKH PROBLEM TO BE DISCUSSED DURING PACE SESSION FOR THE FIRST TIME

Hearing of David Atkinson's report is put on the agenda of PACE winter session.

On Monday, during the session of the Bureau of Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly it was decided to put David Atkinson's report on the agenda of PACE winter session. It should be reminded that the PACE Political Affairs Committee has heard the report and after making some corrections in the text, recommended to consider it during the upcoming session. The winter session will be held on January 23-28, 2005.
PanARMENIAN.Net - The content of the report was not discussed during the Bureau session. Consideration of regulations of this document at the Bureau would not be correct at least because Armenia is not represented in that body whereas the Head of Azerbaijani Delegation Samed Seidov is included in the Bureau, being the vice president of PACE. The decision about putting the hearing of the report on the agenda was made unanimously. Thus, for the first time in the history of the Council of Europe the Karabakh problem is going to be considered during the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly.

After David Atkinson's presentation of the report previously registered deputies will make speeches and show their attitude to its regulations. Afterwards, the deputies will consider the recommendations concerning amendments, which will be put to the vote separately. Armenia intends to speak in support of making several amendments. Azerbaijan will more likely refrain from initiating any amendments since the current edition of the report is quite suitable for them.

The report really contains some regulations that are very dangerous for us. Formulations like "Nagorno Karabakh territory, controlled by separatist forces"; "representatives of political circles of Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Karabakh", "Large-scale ethnic cleanings in Karabakh" or " creation of a territory with single ethnicity" do not adequately represent the events taken place in reality. Hence, the Armenian delegation will strive for making certain amendments in the report text. This is not an easy task. Usually, amendments proposed are agreed with the PACE Political Affairs Committee which informs the deputies about its attitude towards the initiatives. As it is known, the Political Affairs Committee has rejected three out of the five amendments, proposed by the Armenian party. Supposedly, Roman Yakich will come out with a negative attitude towards the initiative after Armenian delegation's submission of proposals. This will be taken into account, but the proposals will anyway be put to the vote. Practice shows that adoption of amendments without the support of the Political Affairs Committee is very problematic.

But still there are chances. The thing is that the members of the Political committee for the most part represent parliamentary majority in the legislative bodies of their home countries. That is, they are the messengers of the political forces that have formed governments. It is evident that during voting they will be guided by the instructions of their capitals. This allows Azerbaijan to exercise specific lobbing mechanisms, based on oil interests. The plenary session is participated by deputies who are less dependent of the political interests of the ruling cliques, so in the Assembly the lobby resources of Azerbaijan are limited. Thus, the Armenian delegation has hopes that certain formulations in the report will be softened and the final edition of the document will look less tendentious.
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